The Vanishing House Closing

Updated on June 16, 2012
A. asks from Ostrander, OH
11 answers

Hi moms! I am pretty much venting, but also wondering if anyone else has ever been in this position and how it turned out. We have been in contract for over 45 days and scheduled to close on our new house today 6/15. We were pre-approved, we have provided all the documentation the bank requested, and the bank has had nearly 2 weeks to finish their final pre-close audit of our information. We were notified just yesterday by our realtor that the bank has lost our entire file in cyberspace, and despite getting their entire IT team and the software creators involved they cannot figure out how to retrieve our information. All of this was explained to me by our realtor. Our lender has not been returning my phone calls or emails. Apparently bank rules also don't allow underwriting to use the hard copies of the documents we have provided to them, so if they can't ever open the e-file we have to start the process over, possibly with a different lender. We are so frustrated! This is our first time buying a house, we expected stress but nothing like this! Now we are just waiting, trying to get an extension to close from the sellers but with no idea how long we have to wait. Our realtor says she has never seen this happen before. Any ideas? Thank you!

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S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

the lovely thing is that having screwed up your contract, the bank may very well be in a position to reimburse you if you lose the house.
it's extremely aggravating and unprofessional that they were not the ones to contact you. forget the LO. go directly to the branch president, and make it clear to him or her that if you don't get satisfaction you're going to send registered letters to each and every member of the board of directors.
you will probably have to start the process again, but if you just go to a new lender you're back at square 1 with no aces up your sleeve. light a fire under your stupid bank and get this shoved through an expedited process. do it right now!
khairete
S.

5 moms found this helpful

A.R.

answers from Houston on

Start the lender process over. You might consider a different lender. Sometimes credit unions are faster. Ask your realtor her thoughts on the lender situation. She may encourage you to go elsewhere and have recommendations on where to go. In my opinion it's not a good sign for the lender to ignore your calls/e-mails since they are working for you.

These things happen, though. My husband's a realtor. The things his poor clients have suffered make my hair turn grey and I'm just a spectator. My husband had one closing take over 8 months from start to finish. Typically sellers will extend the contract because they want to sell and having a definite buyer is better than putting the house back on the market, taking your chances on finding another buyer again. Good luck and try not to stress as it won't help.

4 moms found this helpful

C.O.

answers from Washington DC on

not sure what you can do. you have all the documentation they requested, correct? I would keep it handy!!

Check with another lender. Find out what their rules are and explain to them what happened with your current lender. Hopefully, the sellers will be accommodating and not let the sale go.

If the sellers won't budge - then I would say this is the Universe or God telling you that this isn't the house for your family!! :)

Hope it all works out!! GOOD LUCK!

3 moms found this helpful
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J.S.

answers from Columbia on

Sometimes sh&% happens. It'll be ok, just a little delay. One of those reminders that this is definitely a first world problem, and that you have a lot to be thankful for in your time of delay.

Also, a good opportunity to strengthen that patience muscle! :)

2 moms found this helpful

J.W.

answers from St. Louis on

We had a lender go out of business a week before our refi closing. I feel your pain.

I don't think there is much you can do but suck it up. :(

2 moms found this helpful
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J.T.

answers from Dallas on

i am going through this bs right now with a refinance, i am about to freaking CHOKE the loan processor. i feel like they are telling me what i want to hear instead of the actual truth... first, we were to close by 5/31, then by 6/15 - which is our payment due date, we were told we wouldn't need to make our june or july payment, they'd start the new mortgage with an 8/15 due date. they told me yesterday, after I CALLED THEM TO VERIFY, that no, we are not closing today, and i needed to go ahead and make my payment... so, now i owe $2300 today, yay! it's no biggie, the money is there, more the principal, what if i DIDN'T have the money still set aside? i'm soooooooooooooo irritated! i feel your pain!

2 moms found this helpful
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K.O.

answers from Atlanta on

Yup. Banks are great at losing things. I haven't heard the hard document thing before. My bank wanted all the hard documents and scanned them into their files. I had also done this so everytime they lost a document, I had a pdf file of it so I could just email it to them. They failed to meet a single deadline, were horrible at returning calls, and constantly requested the same information or random other info. It was a huge headache. If you end up having to get another lender - I really recommend someone local - someone who has a door you can go bang on. If I had it to do again it would be worth the extra to do it that way.

2 moms found this helpful
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❤.I.

answers from Albuquerque on

How frustrating! I don't understand how they can lose your whole file. I guess I would try to get an extension (if it costs more have them pay for it), ask for your file in hard copy and try to find a bank that can expedite it. See if you have a Castle & Cooke, they tend to go pretty fast, meaning 2 or 3 weeks and the funding comes in the same day as closing. Good luck!

1 mom found this helpful
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S.N.

answers from Minneapolis on

ALWAYS keep a copy of everything you ever send to a Mgt. company/bank. Also keep a running log (in just a simple notebook ) of the date, time, person you've spoken to, what was said/promised,etc. etc. as you've experienced - you will need this information if you ever plan on getting any accountability from them. trust me, it stops the he said she said conversation when you state:

" on May 5th I called your office at 11:30 and spoke with Mr. Smith for 46 minutes... he promised me XYZ." Also - always, at the end of every conversation re-cap what you believe was agreed upon and is the next step, ask them if that is their understanding too... and then write it down!

... AND go find a local bank that DOES NOT RE-SELL THEIR LOANS, AND AS ANOTHER PERSON NOTED... HAS ADOOR TO BANG ON.

Sorry about all the caps:).

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C.B.

answers from San Francisco on

I have never heard of this happening either. How can just your file be lost? It seems to me that they should have a back-up system in place. If you do have to start over, I would insist on using a different company because apparently this one cannot be trusted.

The biggest concern I would have is the interest rate. If rates have gone up and you have to start over, you may be paying a higher interest rate. If that happens, I would sue the first company for the difference in what you will have to pay.

Buying a house is very stressful. You thought you were at the end and now find out you may have to go through it all again - OMG I would want to hang myself!

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S.S.

answers from Chicago on

we went thru something similar in 2001. only we were the sellers. We had our new home all picked out and our financing was all in order. We had to close on our current house and that afternoon we were to close on the house we were purchasing. So we are at the closing table. Literally. With the people purchasing our home. our realtor is there, their realtor is there and we are waiting for "the closing package" to be faxed over. It's 9 and then 10 and then 11. our realtor is on his phone going back and forth with the lender. my husband is pissed. we had already changed all utilities to the new buyers names, our phones changed etc. our stuff is in a uhaul in the driveway waiting to go to the new house. by now its like 4 my husband is going off on the lender who finally says to my husband look I am not sure what your doing at a closing table those people we not approved. so they had to start over we had to jump thru hoops to not loose the house we were buying. it was awful. took another 5 weeks. we unpacked the uhaul and just set everything except the necessities in the garage. we were lucky the sellers we were buying from were willing to wait.

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